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The History Man

Published
May 2000
Main Genre
General Fiction General Fiction
Rating
Pages
256

About This Book

Malcolm Bradbury's classic skewering of 1970s academia, hailed by the New York Times as "an encyclopedia of radical chic as well as a genuinely comic novel"

Among the painfully hip students and teachers at the liberal University of Watermouth, Howard Kirk appears to be the most stylish of them all. With his carefully manicured mustache and easygoing radicalism, Kirk prides himself on being among the most highly evolved teachers on his redbrick campus. But beneath Kirk's scholarly bohemianism and studied cool is a ruthless, self-serving Machiavellian streak. A sociology lecturer who outwardly espouses freethinking nonconformity, Kirk is himself vain and bigoted, dismissing female students and colleagues while releasing vitriol against those who contradict him, particularly his clever, wayward wife, Barbara, the long-suffering mother of his two children.


 


A funny and incisive satire of academia and ideological hypocrisy, The History Man is one of Malcolm Bradbury's most acclaimed novels and remains just as sharp and witty today as when it was first published.

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Paperback

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Paperback
Apr 1985 Penguin ISBN 0140076301
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Trade Paperback
May 2000 Picador (UK) ISBN 0330390317
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Sep 2012 Pan Books (UK) ISBN 1447222814
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Jun 2017 Pan Books (UK) ISBN 1509823395
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Hardcover

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Hardcover
Jan 1976 Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0395240859
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eBook

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eBook
May 2015 Picador ISBN 1509823387
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May 2015 Open Road Publishing ISBN 150400776X
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May 2015 Open Road Media ISBN B00VH7BKKO
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Audio

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Audio Cassette
Jan 2000 Chivers Audio Books ISBN 0754004074
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Audible
Aug 2025 -- Not Selected ISBN B0FN5992QW
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